PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2013

PREFORM PRODUCTION 18 PET planet insider Vol. 14 No. 11/13 www.petpla.net Sipa presented injection compression moulding system at drinktec “eXTREME“ly light At Drinktec in Munich we met Enrico Gribaudo, General Manager of Sipa Italy. Our last meeting had been in February 2013 in Canada at the premises of Athena, Sipa’s machin- ery partner for the preform systems XFORM 150 and XFORM 300. One of the topics discussed at this interview was the light- weighting of PET preforms and bottles and whether the boundaries of what is actually feasible had already been reached. At the time Enrico Gribaudo’s reply surprised us when he announced that further significant stages in weight reduction were a possibil- ity. The solution was exhib- ited at Drinktec in Munich, a preform system based on the injection compression moulding system with the type designation XTREME. The injection compression mould- ing process enables a preform to be designed without any constraints as regards injection moulding. Using this process means that the preform base area and the preform walls can be made significantly thinner than is possible with the injection mould- ing process or as deemed practical. This opens up new possibilities as regards preform design and potential for weight savings right through to new bottle geometries. According to Enrico Gribaudo, the weight saving, for example, on a 0.5l water bottle (9.5 to 8.7g in weight) with the same specification is more than 8%. As a result of the new design freedoms where preforms and bottles are con- Enrico Gribaudo in front of the new XTREME preform machine at Drinktec